Peter Hain’s Back Door
Well, he’s at it again:
The Scotsman, April 6: Hain Warns of ‘Back Door’ Tory Threat
Voting Liberal Democrat in a key Labour/Tory marginal would let the Conservatives into power “by the back door”, Welsh Secretary Peter Hain warned today.
Peter wanna cracker! Peter wanna cracker! Peter wanna cracker! Peter wanna cracker!
It’s the now familiar New Labour trick whereby if they repeat something, erm, contentious enough times, a strange alchemy occurs and it becomes true.
Go and read this fantastic post by Nick Barlow to find out why Peter is talking bollocks.
I hereby inaugarate the Official Chicken Yoghurt Peter Hain Back Door Count. The cunning use of a Google News Alert will inform us of how many times he uses the dread phrase during the election campaign.
The scores on the (back) doors: 1.
Posted on April 7th, 2005 at 8:52 am
| See also • Hain: At it again • Shake for me, girl. I wanna be your back door man. • Chicken Yoghurt in your inbox |
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• Filed under 2005 General Election, New Labour, UK politics |
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Sounds like a plan. Hain’s an utterly horrible man, an appalling liar and a disgraceful turncoat.
We’ve all got to do our bit to remind people that tactical voting will work and it will play a part in removing people like him from our lives. We can’t let his message get home.
Even the Guardian’s Seamus Milne seems to buy the ‘back door’ argument, after a fashion.
Tactical voting will work, will it? Hope you’re still smiling on May 6.
Looks like somebody’s shitting their pants. Slim majority in Hove, Andy?
I suggest you have a play with the swingometers and remind yourself of the fact that the Tories have absolutely no chance of winning the election. The bookies aren’t stupid.
Good idea. I would also like to keep track of the number of times that Hain says that they ‘acted in good faith’ over Iraq. The fact that it is so obviously not true has not stopped him from repeating it a number of times already.
Everyone knows Hove has a small-ish majority. I also know that ’swing’ is a great simplification of the voting process and therefore won’t be taking the swingometer too seriously.
What really annoys me about the tactical voters is (a) the belief they can really ‘adjust’ the size of a majority, (b) that a smaller Labour majority guarantees anything at all, and (c) that it’s OK to dump worthy candidates in favour of inferior ones from a party you don’t really believe in.
In fact there are lots of things I don’t like about the current band of tactical voters. Completely unprincipled people who trivialise the democratic process and cancel out the votes of people who are voting for a good reason.
PS. The bookie isn’t a fortune-teller, he just wants your money.
PPS. By your reckoning I acted in “good faith” when I opposed the war from the comfort of my own armchair back in 2003 to allow Saddam to remain in power for a bit longer. How comforting it is to have principles!
BB, You say say you don’t like tactical voters but - hand on heart - if Hove were Tory and a Lib Dem vote would see the buggers off, would you seriously vote New Labour?
It’s like New Labour sticking to their guns in Michael Howard’s constituency - if only they’d swallow their pig-headedness, vote Lib Dem and decapitate the Tory Party.
If you think the current crop of tactical voters are an unprincipled bunch then I’m disappointed - these campaigns are borne out of a deep sense of disgust that political hacks like Hain are in denial about. The sooner his career ends in ignominy the better. His foetid “political journey” is complete.
A New Labour majority of less than 60 or even a hung Parliament guarantees two things - Blair fucks off to pay his mortgage on the lecture circuit and the next man has to work harder and not treat Parliament as a contemptible rubber stamp.
And I’ll tell you another thing - I bet when Blair goes the party membership will rocket. I fantasise long and hard about that day - I’d join the Party and help sweep up the mess.
It sounds like the Labour party wants to classify what are morally “good” votes and morally “bad” votes now.
There are many ways in which people are motivated to vote. Millions of votes across the country are cast in ignorance. There are people who will vote Labour till they die, thinking that they are still voting for a genuinely socialist party. Are these people who are voting for a “good reason”?
If the electorate, in Hove, decide that they just cannot vote Labour any more and decide to vote Lib Dem, then who are the Labour party to tell them that their vote is a waste?
If it is a “waste” it is only because Labour haven’t changed the electoral system despite the golden opportunity to do so.
Tactical voting may be necessary at times, but the principle can’t be right. Execrable as Howard is, Labour voters in Folkestone shouldn’t give the Lib Dems a boost just to get rid of him. Besides there are plenty more dangerous Tories spread around the country, and in darkened rooms.
If ‘tactical’ means ‘the extent of my political beliefs is the kicking out of Mr/Mrs. X’ or ‘I don’t believe in party Y but I’ll vote for them just to get rid of Mr/Mrs. X’, that’s not good. That may not be the case for you people, but it will be for others.
I’m working on behalf of the LP, not under their instruction, so nothing I say should be taken (necessarily) to be a LP position.
Eddie, is that a ‘false consciousness’ argument? Surely it’s more democratic to say ‘you oughtn’t to have voted that way’ than ‘you only voted that way out of ignorance’? Voters can see the party programmes and vote because they were treated well in the past, like the current policies, or hope that the party moves ‘their way’ in the future. I’m sure most do, and aren’t being duped.
I didn’t say anything about ‘wasted’ votes. You can blame the electoral system for that, one which I think should be changed. The Tories are the one party that would never ditch FPP - it’s been central to their success.
Vote nobody…
Thrash the servants by spoiling your local elections ballot paper. …
[...] But then this desperation is common in New Labour campaigning methods and material. It’s all about what’s crap about the opposition and not what’s good about New Labour. All that money spent on a CGI lizard and not a single mention of why you should get off your arse and vote New Labour on May 4. It’s the same mentality that drove them to try and frighten protest voters during the General Election with threats of allowing the Tories in “by the back door“. And we see similar desperation in dark mutterings about New Labour voters defecting to the BNP - it’s all about keeping the other lot out of power without providing any reasons for keeping this lot in power. [...]